January 13 Agenda


Absent: Anne Mattingly, Julie Haney,

Morning
- 8:00 - 8:30
...... Snacks, visiting
...... Welcome
  • Congrats to Irma and Hernandez MS to make the Moodle news!

...... Give Raving Fans books to Robert
- Ed/Jan/MJ
...... One time only spending: Carts, Galaxy Tablets (update) .
  • Tablets - Ed is taking care of coaches at secondary (91), aps at elementary (76), ITSs (45), 6 for Ed's staff. ITs will get them first after they are ready. Hoping to get them 31st (am) and Feb. 1 (pm). The Chris x2 will be training. A list will be put out there and we will sign up. Getting a case for the tablet
  • Tripods for 3M cameras are here! Jan has a bid for the 3M camera if you want/need one. One more will be showing up on campuses that have aspire.
  • Equipment for Deerpark MS is in, additional netbook carts for 1 per high school/opp center/ 2 per middle schools will be worked into refresh as well.
  • Don't worry about the netbook news stuff in the news - at least viable for another 18 months or so.
  • 66 interactive whiteboards for elementary - 1 per grade level 3 on non titled campuses. Original proposal was not going to be equiptable, so they are looking at it again.
  • middle school project of putting interactive whiteboards in science classes - most difficult class to put a whiteboard in! That will be looked at again as well.
  • #3 on list - software has been ordered
  • #8 on list - originally wanted 30 slates in one classroom - wouldn't work - was modified to 6 slates. SMART said no more than 2, then said 1 because they compete to communicate. Will work with secondary folks.
  • Dec. 15 board mtg. - Dec. 2008 5 mil was set aside - refresh cycles, professional develoment, an addition 15 mil was approved to cover refresh through 2015. All three new schools will be in their 5th year next year - time flies!
  • New bond? No bond this year according to Dr. Chavez. Can only do elections in May or Nov. - more likely new bond in Nov. 2013. Elsa England should help relieve Sommer, beyond that no real relief needed elsewhere. High schools are the most pressing areas right not.
  • Some boundary changes going to happen which will help with some of the high school crowding.
  • Board elections will be odd numbered year - won't be until Nov. 2013. Current board will be around for another 18 months. Election for 4 board members, then next election for 3. That's pretty significant. Right now our 7 members are very supportive of technology.
  • Bandwidth - local area network has been upgraded, wide area has too - 10 gig. Internet band width was updated right before break - 2 circuits at 200 mb each - one at admin, one at tech center. If one fails, all the traffic goes to the other circuit. Plan is to go up to 250 mb at some point.


...... Tech Alottment Expenditures (funds recently put on campuses)
  • Sub object 88 - local funds are 199, fiscal year which is 2, 11 means instructional, campus code. Object codes define with they are like equipment, supplies, etc. $10 per student, minimum $5,000. Those funds were reinstated - principals got news before break that these funds were deposited. Intent is for technology purposes, training, cartridges, etc. These funds can be used for whatever on the campus, not just technology (see final line of email principal's got). Money was put in supplies, if you want hardware, money has to be moved to another created account. Normally you have a March 15 - deadline for hardware, March 31 - deadline for supply purchases - Ed suggested letting the funds exceeding $100 be carried over to next year. Funds don't have to be spent right now, just remember this was a one time budget deposit.
  • library databases will be paid for 2012-2013

...... Technology Committee (update)
  • Looking at what teachers/students need in terms of technology. Committee is mostly campus based people. You can visit the rrisd-2012-technology-committee.wikispaces.com page to see meeting notes, who's on the committee, goals, responsibilities, etc.
  • Discussions have been interesting from all the different campuses.
  • Having demonstrations and presentations at the next meeting. If you have suggestions on what we should be showing/telling this committee about, tell one of the leaders or ITSs on the committee. 2008 Bond Info is on there as well outlining what the bond was intended for.

...... Google Apps for Educators (training and roll-out)
  • 56 people from the district be certified google trainers - 6 classes am or pm - thanks, Ed for paying for it. 2 hardest are domain management and google docs. Other people we're training are Mariella from HR, elementary instructional coach, secondary instructional coach, Linda A., Diane Hart, Chris x2, Jennifer Adams, Jerry Gutierrez, Kim Widtfield.
  • Documents with training days/times will be in Moodle.
  • Technology Center
  • If you miss a day, you can make it up in the summer time at TCEA at no cost.
  • A couple more other requirements that we'll have to do.
  • Monday - google academy at TCEA (drop Monica Martinez's name). You do not have to go to this, but all the big wigs from Google will be there.
  • Transition - not before June, maybe during June!
  • Ed says - the earliest potential to implement would be the end of May. Would love 6-8 weeks at the end of the year, but not looking too realistic. Just let teachers finish out the year and start new with the next school year.
  • Google sites? Priority is gmail, calendaring, contact lists - things related to email. Documents, sites, not a priority for the district.
  • Browser and Office - we are not focused on changing those right now. Google Chrome/Firefox not supported right now in the district. Our products/applications are only tested with IE. IE8 is being pushed out across the district. IE9 requires system 7, so we will not go to IE9 - too many XP machines still out there.
  • Not looking to change gradebook right now - on gradespeed for another year.
  • Teacherweb for one more year as well - that's it, really it is.

Tablet Implementation - Jan
  • Not easy to bring them up on the wireless network. New product from Aruba at the end of Jan. might help with that. Have to have a google account to access google apps and updates. Email account will be the google account they will end up with.
  • ITSs done first - out a few days and then do secondary a few days, then do elementary last.
  • We can do duel view on email so you can have LN and google mail with LN forwarded to google.
  • ITSs will test google mail when the tablets are given to us.
  • We will have our tablets before principals, don't rub it in! Principals will not have their google mail yet, so hush.
  • Eduphoria is the main purpose for having these tablets.
  • Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 - at the tech center. (This can change!)
  • Principals and APs will have to go to the tech center as well.
  • When principals and APs leave the district, it will go to the new administrator, but back to the tech center to "re-do".
  • Please don't take it to Starbuck's - have patience and remember we have standards.
  • No active directory on the tablets at this point.
  • Zenprise for the tablets.
  • Tablets for the classroom question....tell administrators to hold off on ordering any tablets - we are not ready for this - they can call MJ, Jan, Ed if they have questions.

  • Projectors on stages - easy ones being done first (projector on back wall of stage or ceiling, rear projector to screen, deep enough for 10 feet between projector and screen), Larry went through campuses not done yet and there are 12 that should still fit that criteria. Campuses have to be walked with vendors to look at everything - hopefully starting next Wednesday to get them all walked. After that all harder ones will get started like Anderson Mill, high schools, middle schools.
  • Refresh - a school a week except for TAKS week. Harddrives may be in short supply, so Jan is going to work ahead to get things ordered. Those schools right after spring break (and even May) get a date set with Jan to meet for hour and a half to get the order ready.

- FYI
...... No Internet OU (MJ)
  • No Internet group - if you move a computer into this group, still able to have access to Moodle and E2020.

...... Airliners (JU)
  • Trying to get an msi to one update for these airliners. Jeff had a google doc that indicated which airliners were broken and being replaced due to batteries.
...... STAR Chart (JU)
  • 3 new ITSs for STAR chart - documentation in grab stuff. Everything should be the same as last year. URL has changed though - now in epsilen. starchart.epsilen.com
  • March 31 target date for completing STAR chart

...... Telpas Proctor Caching (JU) Telpas OU Doc
  • March 19-April 6 - please fill out the form - still need OUs even though we're not installing software. Be sure to fill out the admiistration notes tab.
  • This form must be completed by January 31 so that Jan's group can get it ready for practice to occur.

...... Netbook Cart update (JU)
  • Tech ops - please let them know if you have carts not charging. Dan working with the cart company to get these things fixed. If the netbook flashes once and goes off and it's a-okay. Light comes on and stays on, not good. Light never comes on, really not good.
  • Make sure you are giving a good description of what the problem is when you turn things in to technical operations.
...... Parent Summit - Stony Point High School, Saturday, February 4th, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Huge district event that happens every year. Robert needs help getting that organized - getting classrooms ready, etc.

...... Robotics Showcase - McNeil HS, Saturday, May 12th, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
  • Taking it to the next level.....dynamic team putting it together!! Individual campuses will hold their own tournament and top winner will be represented at the showcase. Moving this direction was a principal request.

...... Leadership RRISD - FYI only, February 21st Community Committee Presentation - led by public relations department. Robert, Jeff, and Ed will be presenting and showing our blogs.
............ - Campus Getting I.T. Right
............ - District Getting I.T. Right
............ - Demonstration of some interactive technology
............ - (To be determined)

- Discussion and Table Work Groups
...... 8th Tech Literacy Exam and Questions (JU) - test hasn't even been developed yet. Our area has been assigned questions so Jeff wants to be able to take them to TCEA when he meets with them.

Afternoon
1:30 - 2:00 Table Talk Groups
  • BYOT Policies - review and discuss - Robert A.
  • Technology Assessment - what to know and prepare for - vertical conversation
  • TCEA for Newbies - how to get the most out of your time. - Leslie L.
  • TCEA - plan to stay in touch - how to use social networking
  • What’s Google+ - Nicolle E.
  • Logger Pro demonstrations - Valerie R.


2:00 – 3:30 Breakout Sessions:
  • Photoshop with John P.
  • Google Preview for newbies - Greg S.
  • Staff Development Preparation - Amazing Race and other formats
  • Revisit moodle - quizzes - Donna O.
  • Tech Camps - what are they and how do they work -Sample Camp: Scratch Programming - Getting Started (download Scratch - http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch_1.4_Download ) Robin Y.
  • Work Time - topic of your choice